David Cooper

0209 - Ugolin

Added 2023-04-10 08:00:00 +0000 UTC

Let's get the obvious trivia out of the way: Ugolin and his uncle Cesar are named after characters from Marcel Pagnol's "L'eau des collines" novel collection, they share the uncle/nephew relationship that these characters have in "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources". I don't even know why I'm bringing this up, everyone already knows this, it's like the most famous piece of Simpsons trivia.

As with Adil, Ugolin's main appearance is in this episode, working at the Chateau Maison:

And despite their arrest at the end of this episode, they are seen watching the Superbowl in season 3's "Lisa the Greek". Perhaps anti-freeze in the wine is not as serious a crime as we are led to believe?

By season 4's "Last Exit To Springfield" they can even ben seen looting in Springfield when the power is turned off:

Look at that cool kid with the sunglasses. So cool. Must make a note to include him as a bonus...several years from now.

Ugolin and Cesar are next seen in season 27's "To Courier With Love", in which Homer smuggles a rare blue snake into Paris for them:

They play a surprisingly significant role in this episode, chasing Homer and Lisa around Paris to retrieve the snake so they can make it into a belt. They have no interaction with Bart again, so there is no direct callback, and sadly their donkey Maurice is nowhere to be seen.

Their last appearance to date is in season 32's "Undercover Burns", in which Mr Burns reveals that Ugolin and Cesar were once his 'frenemies' (French enemies):